Evolution~by Paul Lenzi

 

 

Evolution

Image from pinterest.com

Finger paints, crayons and chalk sticks:
tools for untutored expression
of the wonders erupting around me
back when I first learned to see

Erasers and number two pencils:
tools for practicing alphabets
each letter a germinant seed
back when I first learned to read

Fountain pens, inkwells and blotters:
tools for incipient authorship
compositions committed to ink
back when I first learned to think

Clicking ballpoints and felted tip pens:
tools for the custom of politesse
conveying the feelings I wanted
back when I first corresponded

Mechanical gauged leaded pencils:
tools for apprentice architects
rendering visions with craft
back when I first learned to draft

Typewriters, ribbons and white-out:
tools of up-all-night scholarship
dissertations born of caffeine
back when I first pleased a dean

Mimeographs and copy-type pools:
tools of the white collar trade
where ambition started to burn
back when I first learned to earn

Dictaphones, shorthand stenographers:
tools for the budding professional
memos composed in my head
back when I first climbed ahead

Broad stroking roller ball pens:
tools by which bosses authorize
signing my bold imprimatur
back when ambition grew hotter

Computers, e-mail and spreadsheets:
tools of the corporate officer
scaling the ladder with speed
back when I learned to succeed

PDA’s and private secretaries:
tools for the senior executive
standing astride the cap of the wall
back when I thought that I had it all

Portable laptops, the blogosphere:
tools for quite different fulfillment
reluctant to damp the old fire
back when I learned to retire

It’s odd how one great arcing circle
evolves from one linear life:
my grandchildren’s Crayola crayons
my scratchpad for doodles to play on
my plump Mont Blanc Meisterstück pen
bring me back to old pleasures again

 

 

(originally posted April 2013 – written years earlier)